Writers › Writer / Poet
Yan Jidao
Northern Song lyricist, youngest son of the chief minister Yan Shu, who held only minor posts and wrote wistful song lyrics collected as Xiaoshan ci
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Shuyuan · Hao Xiaoshan
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Yan Jidao, courtesy name Shuyuan, sobriquet Xiaoshan, came from Linchuan in Fuzhou and was the youngest son of the chief minister Yan Shu. He never rose beyond minor posts such as market supervisor at Xutian, assistant prefect of Qianning and judge in Kaifeng. When Zheng Xia was punished in 1074 for presenting a picture of refugees against the New Policies, a poem from Yan was found in his house and Yan was briefly jailed. Many of his lyrics recall the singing girls Lian, Hong, Pin and Yun, and a famous couplet in his *Linjiang xian*, on a lone figure among falling petals while swallows fly in pairs, was borrowed from the Five Dynasties poet Weng Hong. Huang Tingjian's preface to his *Xiaoshan Lyrics* (*Xiaoshan ci*) lists his 'four follies', among them refusing to court the powerful though his career stalled. Shao Bo records that he declined a visit from Su Shi, remarking that half the men in the Council of State had once been his family's guests.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; ci poet of the late Northern Song